History

All courses in history at Holderness School emphasize the need to read critically, think carefully, and communicate clearly. Teachers attempt to instill the idea that “history” is an ever–changing, individual reinterpretation of the past. To understand history one must therefore understand the historian. Students are challenged to think for themselves, engage their peers’ ideas and to balance the different interpretations of our past as they establish and hone historical thinking skills.

Required Coursework:

Foundations of Modern Society

All ninth grade students are required to take Foundations of Modern Society, a one–semester course in the second semester. Emphasizing fundamental historical thinking skills through diverse case studies, this course serves as a unifying, foundational academic experience. It is intentionally broad in scope and teachers employ 3-4 diverse content areas to grapple with the essential question: How do social groups form and thrive? While the specific units vary from year to year and teacher to teacher, there is a special focus on the role governments play in forming societies, the way perception of the “other” can form a group, and the way an idea can develop a group identity. There is an explicit focus on developing an understanding that every source is an interpretation. Teachers employ at least of two different historians’ interpretations in each unit of a historical event, several contrasting primary sources, and various visual interpretations. This course also shares a main essential question with the English Humanities course, “How do I learn best?” and developing students’ metacognition about their individual learning process.

US History

All tenth-grade students and eleventh grade students, who have yet to take a year of US history, are required to engage one of the following offerings in American History. Read about the three options here.

﻿Electives﻿After the introductory course, Foundations of Modern Society, and the year of US history, students are well positioned to embrace our upper-level electives. The history requirement is two full years, and thus at some point in their 11th or 12th grade year students take a minimum of one semester of history. In the upper levels of the curriculum, students may begin to branch out into the social sciences of comparative government, media studies, psychology or economics. Two intellectual history offerings allow students to foray into philosophy. We also offer several area studies courses. Beginning in the spring of 2018, we are excited to have upper level students engage our US History 2 electives.

We also offer one elective for 9th graders in the fall who just can not wait a semester to take a history course! For the fall of 2017, this course will be the History of Modern Terrorism.

History Course Descriptions

All ninth grade students are required to take Foundations of Modern Society, a one–semester course in the second semester. Emphasizing fundamental historical thinking skills through diverse case studies, this course serves as a unifying academic experience for the students and is a foundation for their future studies in history. It is intentionally broad in scope and teachers employ 3-4 diverse content areas to grapple with the essential question: How do social groups form and thrive? While the specific units vary from year to year and teacher to teacher, there is a special focus on the role governments play in forming societies, the way perception of the “other” can form a group, and the way an idea can develop a group identity. There is an explicit focus on developing in each student an understanding that every source, primary or secondary, is an interpretation. To that end, teachers employ in each unit at least of two different historians’ interpretations of a historical event, several contrasting primary sources, and various visual interpretations in each unit. This course also shares a main essential question with the English I course, “How do I learn best?” and focuses on developing students’ metacognition about their individual learning processes.

Potential and past unit topics (at individual teacher’s discretion):

Collective Learning and Early Human Evolution

Agricultural Revolution

The Development of Ancient States: Rome, China, Political Philosophy

The Holocaust and Comparative Genocide Studies

New Colonialism and the Belgian Congo

Apartheid South Africa

Jim Crow America

Communist Revolutions

The Industrial Revolution

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This semester-length required US History course will be the starting point for all future historical inquiry at Holderness. The course will focus on the development of the Constitution and the Reconstruction eras. These foundational topics will introduce themes of a variety of civil liberties, but notably freedom of speech and suffrage. The essential question will be: What does it mean to be a US citizen?

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In this semester long elective, students will examine and study key events and topics of the twentieth century in America utilizing films as both primary and secondary sources. In a growing digital age, where video and films have become increasingly prevalent, students need to be critical viewers and recognize the possibility for bias and see the importance of perspective and point of view. Over the course of the semester we will look at four or five main events and time periods. Each unit will consist of three main parts. First we will spend time reading, discussing, and learning about the historical context of the given unit. This will be done through the readings of largely primary source documents, but also some secondary sources. Second we will watch a major motion picture that addresses some aspect of the topic (instead of purchasing books for this class, they will be required to purchase a digital copy of the films). Lastly, students will either write an essay or conduct in-depth debate style discussions both confirming and complicating the film as either a primary and/or secondary source. One of the main questions to be answered will be, how does [said film] contribute to our study and understanding of [said topic]?

List of Potential Films Used: The Birth of A Nation (1915), Cinderella Man (2005), Mississippi Burning (1988), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Dr. Strangelove (1964), Platoon (1986) Or Apocalypse Now (1979)

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Every facet of American society was rapidly changing at the turn of the 20th century and the modern American Identity was beginning to take shape. This semester elective will focus on the time period of 1900- 1945, primarily focusing on the how America got itself into the Great Depression and then how the Second World War, pulled America out of the Great Depression. We will look not only at the economic impacts of Depression but also the social and political impacts. Through primary and secondary source analysis, students will be forced to confirm and complicate the documents to further develop their own understandings of the time period. Lastly, we will also make connections to the 2008 Recession, the largest economic recession, since the Great Depression.

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As many survey courses are forced to address this period in a brief span of time, America in the 50s and 60s allows students to take a longer look into this formative post-World War II period. While being taught as a focused survey course, the class will particularly focus on key topics, including: the Civil Rights movement, Korean Vietnam Wars, Eisenhower and Johnson presidencies and policies, Cold War, and political radicalism. Particular attention will be paid to the cultural history of the period, including books, movies, and music. Open to qualifying sophomores, juniors, and seniors in the Spring.

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No textbook required.

The two principal goals of this seminar will be to familiarize students with some of the most important aspects of the Civil War and Reconstruction as well as the legacy left by the wake of such a divisive war. This course will include close examination of some of the more important historiographical debates. Topics include: sectionalism, antebellum political parties, slavery, abolition, Civil War politics, Presidential and Congressional Reconstruction. The course will then turn to look at more contemporary case studies illustrating the differences between the emancipation of slaves and the long to road to equality in American society. Students will read both primary and secondary resources to gain a complex understanding of the Civil War period and its lasting legacy.

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Application requiredThis is a yearlong course students may elect to take with an application and recommendation from their 9th grade history and english teachers. It will follow the Advanced Placement United States History curriculum, and will have summer work and vacation work. Students will be required to take the AP Exam in the spring.

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Application requiredThis two year course, beginning in the 10th or 11th grade year, will prepare students for both the Advanced Placement European History Exam and the Advanced Placement US History Exam. Students must submit an application and will be vetted for admission. This course will employ a broader lens to explore historical phenomena on both sides of the Atlantic embracing the globalized approach of modern historical research. Study of the American constitution, for example, will be endowed with prior study of the Enlightenment. Students will be expected to engage in a project in the summer between the two years of the course. Students will take both exams, but may petition to take only one at the end of their second year of the course (in their junior or senior year). This course will be team taught (either two teachers ½ time, or two teachers full time) for the first iteration of the course.

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This semester-length course, at full time can be taken in tandem with the following Authoritarian Societies elective to prepare students for the AP Comparative Government exam. The AP Curriculum mandates study of six core core countries. In this elective students will consider the United Kingdom, Mexico, Nigeria (three of the core countries) and India, a notable exception from the curriculum.

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Pre-requisite course: AP Comparative Government I: Democratic SocietiesThis semester-length course, at full time can be taken in tandem with the prior Democratic Societies elective to prepare students for the AP Comparative Government exam. The AP Curriculum mandates study of six core core countries. In this elective students will consider the Iran, Russia and China (three of the core countries) and a fourth country of relevance in that year that could be: North Korea, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Cuba or Venezuela.

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Open to qualified 11th graders and 12th graders, the AP European History elective introduces students to the cultural, intellectual, economic, social, political, and diplomatic developments of European history from 1450 to the present day. In addition to providing a basic narrative of events and movements that shaped Europe, the goals of the AP program in European history are to develop an understanding of the principal themes in modern European history, an ability to analyze historical evidence, and an ability to express historical understanding in writing.

During the 20th century the United States fought three wars in East Asia: the Pacific War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. How did the East Asians perceive and react to the wars? How did the wars affect people's lives and societies in East Asia? How did these wars impact postwar relations between the United States and East Asia? How did race, culture, and ethnicity play significant roles in these wars? This course examines these questions by studying East Asia in these three American wars as an oral and social history. The course focuses on the human dimensions of the wars as experienced by those East Asians who fought and lived through them.

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This course will consider what it means to be both African and American in today's United States by considering often over-looked African-American voices of our past and present. By using such touchstone moments as the arrival of the first Africans to the British colonies, early slave rebellions, the American Revolution, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Era, the Obama Presidency, and the Black Lives Matter movement, students will discover a new, richer history that pre-dates the Founding Fathers.

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Offered on a bi-annual bases. LIKELY NOT TO BE OFFERED IN 19-20, interested rising juniors are advised to take in 2018-19.This semester elective is designed for students who develop an interest in intellectual history and want the opportunity to seek further depth. By reading and studying the poetry, art, and prose literature of these two movements, we hope to understand the dynamic interaction between the rationalism and optimism of 1750-1800 and the haunted, wild Romantic ideas of 1800-1850. We will also trace the legacy of these movements in the Western tradition. Students will spend most of their time evaluating and commenting on selected primary sources from Locke to Poe.

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This is a survey course of Ireland’s 8,000-year history presented as a simulcast of past (history proper) and present (current affairs). The premise is that Ireland provides an effective case study for the concerns of contemporary peoples and historians: imperialism and post-colonialism, nationalism and globalism, religious and sectarian conflict, immigration and emigration, terrorism and conflict resolution. We explore how writers, filmmakers, and musicians have represented the rebirth of this “troubled” nation, and we ask provocative questions about nation building and defense.

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Offered on a bi-annual bases. LIKELY NOT TO BE OFFERED IN 19-20, interested rising juniors are advised to take in 2018-19.In this semester-long junior or senior elective students will consider the role of mass communications in politics. Each unit will consider a different aspect of the media including traditional print journalism, political cartoons, photography, radio, comedic television, and the expanding landscape of social media. Study of a particular medium will begin with case studies on how the communications technology was developed and used in various historical periods. Students will hone their analytical skills in each unit by composing an analysis of a modern example of the medium in question. With a growing public criticism of the role of the media in politics and the questions surrounding “Fake News,” this course will also focus on developing educated and inquisitive consumers of media. As a projects-based class, each unit will be assessed with students trying their hand the media form in question to comment on the a current events topic. Students should expect to engage in collaborative work, group discussions, short analytical compositions and practice real-world application of the theories, ideas and examples studied as they generate their own media.

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Offered on a bi-annual bases. LIKELY NOT TO BE OFFERED IN 19-20, interested rising juniors are advised to take in 2018-19.This course is designed to give students access to the great historically-inclined intellectual works of post-World War II America and will complement fall enrollment in Enlightenment and Romanticism. In particular, these works demonstrate modern intellectual reactions against mass movements. Through an international lens, the works would especially look at concerns surrounding the rise of both communism and fascism leading up to, including, and following the Second World War. Additionally, the works will take many of these global apprehensions and apply them to growth of massive organizations and materialism in America itself. This reaction gave birth to American movement that prized individuality over the group. Authors: Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Reinhold Niebuhr, The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness, Eric Hoffer, William Whyte, John Updike, David Brooks.

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Psychology I concentrates on the study of the human mind and human behavior. It is broken down into four units:

The History of Psychology

Biological Psychology

Developmental Psychology

Social Psychology

The course is designed to give students a foundation of psychology and lead to an interest in further study of psychology. Regardless of how far students go with their study of psychology, students will have a better understanding of the human mind and reasoning behind human behavior after this introductory course.

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A semester-length opportunity for continued study in Psychology. The prerequisite is Psychology I, but these two courses do not have to be taken in the same calendar year (could be taken 11th and 12th grade for example). Psychology II includes topics such as learning and memory, motivation and emotion, intelligence testing and individual differences, and abnormal psychology. The course is an opportunity to dive deeper into the different types of psychology discussed in Psychology I, such as biological, developmental, cognitive, and social psychology.

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The purpose of this course is to examine the role that women have played in the history of the United States from the start of the women’s rights movement to the present. We will look at the ways in which women have empowered themselves in the context of patriarchal oppression and assess the stumbling blocks they met in their quest for social, political, and economic equality. In so doing, we will elevate women to their rightful place in the larger study of history and better understand what it means to be a woman, a man, and a human being.

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In this semester-long elective course students will examine and critically analyze various methods of artistic expression from around the world. There will be a special emphasis on not only the “high” fine arts of drawing, painting, sculpture and architecture, but also of various forms of “low art” including but not limited to popular film, cartoons and other forms of artistic expression with mass appeal. The essential questions driving the course focus on understanding the historiographical significance of artistic artifacts of a culture but also examine what differentiates a piece of art from a urinal on the wall. What is art and how is it made? How does art communicate and act as a record for human experience? What can we learn about a culture through its art forms? What skills and vocabulary can help us to effectively communicate about art?

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Offered on a bi-annual bases. LIKELY NOT TO BE OFFERED IN 19-20, interested rising juniors are advised to take in 2018-19.

Open to 11th and 12th graders, this semester-long elective explores the complexity of one of the most paradoxical regions in the world. The Middle East encompasses some of the richest and poorest countries. It is the geographic foundation of the three largest world religions and is perhaps one of the most turbulent regions of the twenty-first century. This course examines the sources of today’s socio-political problems, including twentieth century imperialism, the Balfour Declaration, the Cold War, and globalization. This course seeks to determine what needs to change in order to create a viable peace in the Middle East.

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No textbook required.

View Our Curriculum

School Level

Department

Faculty

Kelsey Berry

History Department Chair

(603) 779-5310

New Hampton SchoolSt. Lawrence University - B. A. History and GovernmentPlymouth State University - M.Ed in Heritage Studies

Ms. Berry is the chair of the history department. She moved eleven miles north to become a member of the Holderness community after attending New Hampton School as a faculty child. She first joined the Holderness Community part-time in the spring of 2011; she then worked at the Ethel Walker School for the 2011-2012 school year, and eagerly returned to her native New Hampshire and Holderness in fall of 2012 with her dog. She holds a M.Ed. from Plymouth State University and a B.A. from St. Lawrence University.

Patrick Livingstone

Mr. Pat Livingstone received his Master’s in Social Studies from Columbia University and his Bachelor's in History from Bates College, where he also played football. At Holderness, he teaches three History classes and one section of English 3. Pat specializes in American History, but has taught lots of courses including ancient civilizations, foundations of modern societies, women’s history, economics, writing, American literature, and others. Before coming to Holderness, he taught History at Poly Preparatory Day School and was the Dean of Student Life. Pat coaches JV Football and Girls' Softball and works as an adjunct advisor in Niles dormitory.

Pat lives in Meredith with his wife, Kim, who will also be teaching nearby as she has accepted a tenure track position at Plymouth State University. They have three children, Taylor, Dylan, and Morgan. Prior to teaching Pat was a commercial fisherman and a commissioned artist. While he still loves fishing and drawing, he also loves cooking, reading, photography, being outdoors, endurance races, fresh seafood, and asparagus. He is constantly learning about teaching and has contributed to the ongoing discourse not only through readings and coursework, but through presenting at a number of national conferences. He grew up in New Bedford, Massachusetts but has spent the last eleven years in Brooklyn. Even so, he has always considered himself a New Englander and he is excited to be back.

Tyler Cabot

Mr. Cabot joined the Holderness School faculty in 2013 and is the girls’ varsity soccer coach. Prior to Holderness he taught in the Chestertown Middle School, Character Counts program, was a teaching intern in the Advanced Studies Program at St. Paul’s School, and was a student-athlete mentor at Washington College. He holds a B.A from Washington College.

After graduating from the Boston Latin School (1990) and the University of Pennsylvania (1994), Mr. Furlonge began his career at the Holderness School where he taught American History and served as the Co-Director of Diversity. In 2000, he transitioned to the St. Andrew’s School in Delaware. He continued teaching history, while serving as the Chair of the Honor Committee and the Director of Studies. Mr. Furlonge received an MA in American History from Villanova & a M. Ed. from Columbia University, receiving a Klingenstein Fellowship in 2005–06. These advanced graduate degrees helped prepare him for his appointment as the Academic Dean at The Lawrenceville School in 2007. Immediately before returning to Holderness in 2015, Mr. Furlonge was a founding team member of the Christina Seix Academy where he served as Director of Admissions, Dean of Students, and Director of Residential Life between 2010 and 2015. He is joined by his three rambunctious children—Logan (10), Lucas (8), and Wyatt (4) and an equally rambunctious wife, Nicole (age unknown).

Jordan Graham

History Faculty

(603) 779-5369

University of Montana - MA HistoryUniversity of Montana - BA History and Political Science

Mr. Graham joined the Holderness School faculty in 2015 and is the head football coach and residential faculty member in Rathbun dormitory. Prior to Holderness, Mr. Graham completed his Master's degree in History at the University of Montana, specializing in modern American History. In 2017, he completed the Klingenstein Summer Institute for Early Career Teacher in conjunction with Columbia Teacher's College. He lives on campus with his wife Allison and son Easton.

Christine Lushefski

Ms. Lushefski grew up in Rumson, NJ, but her family now resides in Chatham, MA. She joined the Holderness Athletic Department and the History Department after graduating from Dartmouth College. At Dartmouth, Ms. Lushefski studied psychology and education, was a 4-year member of the women's lacrosse team, and was a member of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee.

Conor O'Meara

Mr. O’Meara comes from the small town of Norwell, MA. He joined the history and theology faculty at Holderness after attending Boston College High School in Dorchester, MA and graduating from Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT last spring. At Fairfield University, Mr. O’Meara coached soccer and worked as co-leader of Eucharistic Ministry in the campus ministry.

Andrew Sheppe

Mr. Sheppe joined the Holderness School faculty in 2010 and is the coach of the mountain biking team and a residential faculty. Prior to Holderness he taught at the Groton School and the Blue Ridge School and worked as a language analyst at the National Security Agency. He holds a B.A. from Georgetown University. He lives on campus with his wife, two sons, and a dog.